Hot? HP 2.1 megapixel digicam and printer for $199

[annihilator]

Ripped from techbargains:

Bluelight.com

Seems like a good deal. The camera used to retail for $199 by itself; now it's discontinued.

I'm considering getting a Sony P31, should I go for this instead?

 

[carmann]

You can pick up the same bundle at Target everyday for that price. Apply for the their cc and get an add'l 10% off.

To be honest annihilator, I don't think you'll be happy with this cam or the P31. Try finding one with an optical zoom, you'll be much happier in the long run.

 

[annihilator]

Okay, I'm a camera novice, so please tell me...what's the big deal with optical zooms? Why does it matter if it's optical or digital?

Thanks in advance...

 

[jTek]

Optical zoom - good

Digital zoom - sux

 

[tomcat]

This covers it pretty well..

The optical zoom magnifies (zooms in) using glass. The digital zoom basically crops out the edge of the picture to make the subject appear closer, causing you to lose resolution or to get an interpolated resolution (i.e. the camera adds pixels). Neither of which help image quality.

Finally, make sure you get enough (optical) zoom. A 2x zoom isn't going to do much for you. A 3x is the average you'll find in most digital cameras will probably be good for most uses.

 

[annihilator]

Ok, that makes sense. But now the question is, am I really going to find an optical zoom in a sub $250 price range? Cause I can't justify spending more than that on a camera right now.

 

[Acme]

Of course, the reality of the situation is that the higher the total megapixels climb the less important zoom really is. Which is why you don't see the vast majority of digital cameras on the market with huge zooms anymore. My Sony Mavica had a 10X zoom, but the camera only produced a 640x480 image so every pixel mattered. In other words, I had to make sure I had in the viewfinder EXACTLY what I wanted the final picture to be because I had very few pixels to play with. If I cropped a 640x480 image, I was going to end up with a very small picture on the screen or on paper.

Based on my experience with that Mavica, I used to really think zooming was the end-all/be-all of digital photography and for awhile I was only considering upgrading to cameras that had big optical zooms. But now I know what pretty much everyone else already knew -- if I have a 2048x1536 image on my 1024x768 screen, I can crop a whole heck of a lot of the picture and still have a huge image left. In other words, I can just snap a picture without worrying too much about framing it in the viewfinder and then I can crop the image down with software later and still have plenty of image on the screen or page. I don't know about you, but I don't have a large-format printer and I don't intend to use my camera to do portrait-quality stuff. I want normal photo-quality images that I can print at letter size or less, or that I can put on my web sites.

Are big optical zooms nice to have? Sure. The more toys and gadgets you have, the better, IMO. But is it really necessary to have a big zoom for an average Joe-photographer like me? No way. Like I said before, go check and you'll see that the vast majority of the cameras on the market don't have more than 3x optical zooms and many newer ones have 2x. There's a reason for that if you stop to think about it. Heck, I hardly even bother with zooming most of the time anymore!

Acme

 

[NordicNINE]

Also megapixels isn't everything. I compared an Olympus 1.3MP to a HP 2.1MP and the Olympus looked better. The quality of the optics is very important too.

Olympus & Nikon make nice digital cameras. I'm not impressed with HP. Fuji looks nice, but has a problem with "dust flares". Epson is OK.

Check out Steve's Digicams for some reviews.

 

[RossMAN]

<< Ok, that makes sense. But now the question is, am I really going to find an optical zoom in a sub $250 price range? Cause I can't justify spending more than that on a camera right now. >>



Where've you been? I'd check the Hot Deals more often if I were you.

Micro Center is offering 20% off digicams.

There've been some nice deals on Olympus and Canon models for well under $250.

If this deal is still alive, it's what I would buy. Awesome digicam.

 

[annihilator]

<< Where've you been? I'd check the Hot Deals more often if I were you. >>



Haha, that's funny, I check Hot Deals like three times a day at least, it's just that I only decided during the last week that I needed a digicam. And I know nothing about them or photography in general, but I'm learning.

Anyway, it seems that Staples deal is long dead, couldn't find any coupons, and when I searched for that camera on the site it didn't come up. And I don't have Amex anyway.

I checked out Microcenter, and that Fuji FinePix 2600 looks really nice. At $230 shipped before tax, I was seriously thinking about getting it...then I checked Pricegrabber, and found it at buydig.com for $207. They screw you on the shipping ($19.95?! wtf?!), but no tax, and the total comes out to only $226.95. Resellerratings of 7.77. What do you guys think? Alternatively, you could use a $10 off coupon for new users at buy.com and get it for $228.95. (No tax, and FREE shipping.)

While I'm at it, what are some good sites for digital camera reviews? dpreview.com lets you compare cameras side by side, but it's kind of hard to navigate and all the users give their cameras high ratings.

 

[carmann]

You can read reviews at Steve's Digicams. Look a few posts up, nordicNINE linked it.

Here's a few long shot deals you can try...

Staples had/has the Canon A10 (1.3mp w/ optical zoom) for $200, use a $30 coupon - don't know if the $70 rebate is still available
Staples has the Oly D-460 (1.3mp w/ optical zoom) on clearance for $149.99 (last time I checked, may be less now AND if you can find one) use $30 coupon
Target has the Oly D-510 (2.1mp w/optical zoom) on clearance for $149.94 (very hard to find now but not impossible)
Target has the Sony DSC-P30 (1.3mp w/optical zoom) on clearance for $124.94 (also very hard to find)
If you have a K-Mart that's closing in your area, you may want to check there. Some people have got some pretty decent deals at those stores.

If you can't find any of these you know another deal will pop up sooner or later.

 

[annihilator]

Thanks carmann, I'll check those out. Appreciate the help.

 

[RossMAN]

<< I checked out Microcenter, and that Fuji FinePix 2600 looks really nice. At $230 shipped before tax, I was seriously thinking about getting it...then I checked Pricegrabber, and found it at buydig.com for $207. They screw you on the shipping ($19.95?! wtf?!), but no tax, and the total comes out to only $226.95. Resellerratings of 7.77. What do you guys think? Alternatively, you could use a $10 off coupon for new users at buy.com and get it for $228.95. (No tax, and FREE shipping.) >>



Ooh nice choice, that's an awesome digicam, definitely get it!

Here's two other digicam review sites:
dcresource.com
imaging-resource.com

 

[carmann]

I just read Steve's review of this cam and it does sound like a winner!

Another option is taking a printout with the lowest price you've found to Staples, BB, OM, OD or where ever, see it they carry the cam and if they'll pm.

One other thing, if you can't find an item on Staples.com and you have the sku, you can call 800-3staples and have them check stock/prices. They can do the same for stores in your area. Alot of the time the price instore is cheaper than online.

 

[SpongeBobPalmBay]

I know a guy who bought this set up... pics are NOWHERE as nice as what I get with my Olympus D-360: 1.3 mega.

I'm guessing it's the printer that is the weak link here. It's a hella-crappy low end printer.

 

[Sesopedalian]

Funny, I am reading this optical zoom discusion, and I have a 10X optical zoom on my Olympus 2100 digital camera, and I want MORE zoom. I am looking for an Olympus B-300 1.7x teleconverter for increased zoom capabilities. You people make me think I am some sort or zoom-slut.

 

[Atif]

<< You people make me think I am some sort or zoom-slut. >>



Sorry to break it to you like this, but you are. Yup, you're definitely one of them dirty s!uts obsessed with zooming in on items whenever given the opportunity. We'll probably see you on America's Most Wanted, with a cop telling you to 'let go of the zoom button and step away from the camera.'

Peace

 

[TwoMix]

I got the 315 + 64 mb for $110 back in march staples hot deal. It was quick and ez to use, but its a bit larger than the newer cameras. I got some pix printed by snapfish or ophoto or somehting like that, but the pix were kinda blurry not as good as a normal 35 mm would have done. But it also could have been me taking bad pix. Now im using the canon a10 i picked up from staples for 65 afr.

 

[carmann]

<< pix were kinda blurry not as good as a normal 35 mm would have done. But it also could have been me taking bad pix >>



It's not you, it's the camera. I'm sure when you get the pics from your Canon printed out, you'll see the difference immediately.

 

[SolderSucker]

The HP 315 sucks. I thought I was getting a deal when i bought it from staples for about $90 but I would rate it as being almost useless. The pictures it takes are either blurry or too grainy. Perhaps the lens sucks or its ccd sucks? Who knows? So, I decided to try my luck with the Canon A10 and I think it is worlds better than the hp 315 even though it is only 1.3MP. I thinks a good lens makes a big difference and the shutter speed of the A10 when you pre-focus is incredibly fast, which results in less blurred pictures from moving the cam before the camera takes the picture. Just my experience.

 

[amdskip]

I happen to like this camera quite well

here are a bunch of pics taken with it

 

[TechDreamer]

I have been very happy with the HP315 from the staples deal a couple of months back. I got the rebate in 21 days! The total was $106. That was the best camera for that price at the time. It does not have optical zoom, but I never planned on using it for that anyway. The pictures are actually better than I thought they would be. I think more newbies are dissapointed by digicams than anything else. You have to know your needs and do the research.

 

[Dekaner]

I picked up the HP 315 back in March as well and I am thoroughly impressed by it. I knew at the time that it doesn't have optical zoom, and while this would have been a nice feature, I only paid $110 for it! I like to use it hiking - so if I drop it and it breaks (and I have dropped it) then I'm not going to be pissed that I'm out a $500 camera.

If all you want is to take some snapshots of friends, trips, etc. this is a good starting camera. It's not the best out there and eventually I'll upgrade - but I'm in no way disappointed with my purchase.

Just FYI: I am on picture 850 on my second set of batteries. On my first battery set I used the lcd a lot (mostly to show other people the photos) and I only got around 300 photos. I think without using the lcd you could get 500 photos easily.

 

[RadioactiveMagpies]

I own a 1.3 Mp hp215 and the image quality is very bad. My can s20 and olympus d510 at 640x480 are even much better.
But, that hp was soooo cheap this time last year, like the hp315 is now.

 

[SolderSucker]

I guess ignorance is bliss with this camera. Most likely, you will not know how much this camera sucks until you use any other camera. The macro capabilities of this camera just plain suck. Forget about taking close-ups with this camera.